Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Apple should set AppleID free from iTunes

Um. Where's My Music?

I've appreciated Apple products for decades. They've been a great force for providing choice (or competitive pressure depending on your point of view) in the computer hardware, music peripherals, phone and camera sectors. Apple hardware is exceptional. Bravo.

In one specific software product line, it's time for change.

iTunes has become an incredibly cumbersome piece of software. It probably needed to exist to deal with the constraints of Apple's previous lawsuits with Apple Music and as contractual constraint on music distribution agreements Apple closed with record labels in order to launch its MP3 marketplace. We get that. At this time in the product life, it has become overburdened with interface elements that make it cumbersome and non-intuitive tool for computer and phone users for managing their digital assets. It's time to admit that this product should move to the web. A great previous idea is now bloated and burdensome to maintaining engagement loyal users.

We should see AppleID graduate to the world of the web as an e-wallet solution in its own right, not bound to a single software tool. AppleID should enable iTunes-like transactions within Safari, on any web-page that wants to market services and goods to Apple users, rather than forcing Safari to launch empty page requests instructing the user to boot up iTunes. A Safari-bound marketplace with AppleID dependence is better than letting AppleID stagnate with iTunes.